A Dangerous Mission
by Asandbakken
Summary: The team is just back from 6 months of leave when they get a new mission from D.C. How will Dalton handle Jaz having to go in undercover alone after everything that happened in Tehran (Sequel to "Letter to My Guys")


The team had only been back in Turkey for a couple of days when the laptop started signaling a call from D.C.

"Dalton, we got more information off of the bug your team placed on Booth" Patricia informed him. "Apparently, Bartolomeo Bianchi is hosting a party at his compound in Italy."

"Bartolomeo Bianchi?" Amir questioned. "Isn't he the head of the Italian cartel that specializes in human trafficking?"

"That's the one." Noah told them. "He's normally a recluse, but he's decided to host this party in two days."

"Dalton, the American ambassador's daughter is missing. We suspect that Bianchi might be behind it. We need information on where she might be being held." Patricia told him. "We need Jaz to go in and gather whatever Intel she can."

"I'm not sure I'm following you, Director." Dalton said, sounding confused. "I thought you needed the team."

"Your team will be on the ground to provide backup support if necessary, but we need Jaz to go in alone. Bianchi's compound is like a fortress, and the party is by invitation only. We can get Jaz in by having her pose as an escort. Bianchi hired out a dozen of them from an agency in Rome. We can swap out one of the girls with Jaz." Patricia said.

"There has to be another way." Dalton argued. "You can't be seriously sending her in alone."

"We can have her wear a wire like the bug we planted on Booth, but Bianchi is paranoid and has communication jammers planted all around his compound so she won't be able to be on comms. He also has armed guards and motion activated alarms. Multiple systems are in place to keep anyone who wasn't invited out. I'm afraid this is the only way to get the information we need." Patricia said.

"With all due respect Director Campbell I don't think this is a good idea." Dalton said "Sending Jaz in alone with no backup…."

"You can not be serious right now!" Jaz interrupted from behind him. "What the hell Top!"

Amir, McG, and Preach looked at both of them knowingly. They knew why Dalton didn't want to send Jaz in alone. It may have been 7 months since Tehran, but the memory of Jaz being taken was never going to fade for any of them.. Especially Dalton.

"Jaz, it's too dangerous." Dalton said, trying to stay calm. He knew that he couldn't tell her the real reason he didn't want her to take this mission.

"Too dangerous.. Too DANGEROUS!" Jaz yelled. "Like you locking yourself & McG inside a prison during a riot. Or like you sneaking onto a Russian truck in freaking China when we have no comms. What about boarding a plane with a bomb on it and then breaching the plane by yourself. What about going dark and chasing after Hoffman by yourself. Or when Preach made himself a hostage in Nigeria. Or Amir going back undercover in Paris!" Jaz shouted angrily. "We all do dangerous things Top, it's part of the job. So why the hell is it suddenly an issue?!"

"After what happened in Tehran.." Dalton cut himself off. He couldn't believe how close he had come to telling her the truth. That after watching her get taken, and trying so hard to get her back only to think they would have to leave her there… hearing the letter she had left for them and realizing she felt the same way about him that he did for her… and then finally rescuing her and having her back with them safe, but unable to tell her how he really felt because that damn line was firmly back in place. He didn't think he would survive if anything like that ever happened to her again.

"Ever since Tehran you've been babying me" Jaz interjected.

"That's not true." Dalton argured.

"Really?!" Jaz questioned. "You didn't take me to Columbia."

"Jaz, I told you that decision came from the brass." Dalton said, sounding exasperated.

"Yeah yeah... we both know that me being cleared was just a formality. You're the team Captain and you could have pulled some strings and gotten me permission to go. Instead, you left me behind." Jaz shot back at him. "Then at the junkyard you took my shot."

"I just shot first Jaz… it's not that big of a deal" Dalton replied.

"It was to me." Jaz told him. "You once told me that if you were giving me a shot, it was because you knew I could make it. You haven't given me a shot since Tehran, and then you took that one. I guess you don't trust me anymore."

"That's not true Jaz!" Dalton exclaimed. His heart broke a little at her statement. "I trust you more than anyone… but this… you going in alone again… after Tehran, I just…"

"Look Top, I know I screwed up in Tehran." Jaz interrupted. "I tried taking a shot at Jarif that we hadn't planned for and I nearly took out a kid instead. Believe me, I'll never forget that.. but I still managed to get into his penthouse and kill him barehanded. I know that I was taken and you guys risked everything to save me, and we lost Hossein. I'm so sorry for that Top. I'll never forgive myself for that, but we got out. I'm fine. I'm not some fragile little flower. I didn't break when they had me. Not when the beat me until I was unconscious… not when they told me how the examined my naked body while I was "napping"… not when they put a bag over my head and shot a gun a few centimeters away from me… not when they cut into me over and over again with the knives… they couldn't even break me by showing me pictures of the team going through customs and telling me you had all been captured… the only time they came close was when the showed me a picture of you, bloody and slouched over dead in a chair… they told me you had been killed because of me and for half of a second I was afraid it might be true… but then I remembered who I was dealing with and that if they had killed you they wouldn't have brought me pictures, they would have brought me your head… even after he told me that the government had forsaken me and outed me as a spy, I didn't break… he told me they were taking me to a prison to be executed in the morning and that he would be spending the night with me in my cell "extracting information" and even if that had happened I still wouldn't have broken… I made it through my fucked up childhood, I made it through my military career to get on this team, and I made it though Tehran. I'm doing this mission Top. If you can't trust me to get the job done, you better put me in for a transfer, because what the hell am I even doing here?!"

Jaz stormed off to her room to start packing for the mission leaving the rest of the team staring in shock behind her. Dalton started to go after her, but was stopped by Preach.

"I know you want to go after her right now," Preach told him, "but you need to give her some time to cool off. She'll listen better when she's not so angry."

Dalton wanted to argue, but he knew Preach was right. Emotions were heated up all around and they both needed time to level off before they talked again.

"So now that this discussion is over, we'll go ahead and send you the mission brief to go over with your team." Patricia said from the laptop.

Dalton jumped a little because he had forgotten that D.C. was even still on the line.

"Copy that, Director." Dalton told her. "We'll go over it and get back to you."

"Copy that, Dalton. She's going to be okay Adam." Patricia told him. "You need to believe that."

With that said she disconnected and the laptop screen went dark. Dalton just stood there staring at it for a minute. Apparently the only person who didn't know how he felt was Jaz. He wanted so badly to tell her, but knew that he couldn't. He wouldn't be responsible for ruining her career. So instead he pushed his fear aside and went over to the rest of his team to prepare for the op. If he was going to be putting his girl into harms way, they damn well would have everything that could go wrong planned for ahead of time.


End file.
